Karen Ferreira

I am a specialist emergency physician with clinical experience across various healthcare settings. I pride myself on providing high quality, compassionate patient-centred care and always strive for excellence. I provide calm leadership in challenging situations and have excellent interpersonal skills. My special interests include the development of paediatric emergency care in Africa, point-of-care ultrasound in emergency medicine, and providing teaching and training to empower junior doctors and other healthcare providers working in emergency care settings.

Clinical:

• Advanced Trauma Life Support (2026)
• Advanced Neonatal Life Support (2025)
• SYNAPSE course on neurological emergencies, University of Toronto (2025)
• Emergency Medicine Cardiology Course, University of Toronto (2023)
• BASIC ICU course, SUN (2022)
• Thuthuzela Training Induction (2022)
• Aeromedical Evacuation and Transport Course, UCT (2022)
• Disaster Medicine course, UCT (2022)
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support (2022)
• Paediatric Advanced Life Support (2022)
• Basic Life Support (2022)

Ultrasound:

• Advanced PoCUS course, EMSSA (2022)
• Basic emergency PoCUS, EMSSA (2019, 2021)

Research and education:

• Registrar as Teacher Course, SUN (2024)
• Understanding Clinical Research: Behind the Statistics, UCT (2022)

• Point-of-care ultrasound use in Cape Town emergency departments: A snapshot of training and competency. Oral and poster presentation at Stellenbosch University Emergency Medicine Symposium 2025
• Point-of-care ultrasound skills of doctors working in Cape Town emergency departments: A multi-centre cross-sectional study. Poster presentation at African Conference of Emergency Medicine 2024
• Ferreira K, Hendrikse C, Zaayman H, Erasmus E, Van Hoving DJ. Point-of-care ultrasound competency of doctors working in Cape Town emergency departments. S Afr Fam Pract (2004). 2025;67(1):e1-e7.
• Kennedy C, Ignatowicz A, Odland ML, Abdul-Latif A-M, Belli A, Howard A, Whitaker J, Chu KM, Ferreira K, Owolabi EO, et al. Commonalities and differences in injured patient experiences of accessing and receiving quality injury care: a qualitative study in three sub-Saharan African countries. BMJ Open. 2024;14(7):e082098
• Owolabi EO, Ferreira K, Nyamathe S, Ignatowicz A, Odland ML, Abdul-Latif AM, Byiringiro JC, Davies JI, Chu KM. Social Determinants of Seeking and Reaching Injury Care in South Africa: A Community-Based Qualitative Study. Ann Glob Health. 2023;89(1):5.
• Odland ML, Abdul-Latif AM, Ignatowicz A, Alayande B, Appia Ofori B, Balanikas E, Bekele A, Belli A, Chu K, Ferreira K, et al. Equitable access to quality trauma systems in low-income and middle-income countries: assessing gaps and developing priorities in Ghana, Rwanda and South Africa. BMJ Glob Health. 2022;7(4).

• Peer teaching and participation in EMCT academic programme
• EMSSA Basic ePoCUS instructor 2024-present
• SUN Paediatic EM PoCUS instructor 2025-present
• MBChB undergraduate teaching (simulation and PoCUS)
• In-service training and CME sessions with prehospital providers (Western Cape Metro EMS)
• Supervisor and mentor for junior doctors and students (local and foreign electives)

• EMCT Registrar Executive Committee: UCT representative 2023-2024
• Two-week emergency medicine traineeship at Augusta University, Georgia, US. Rotated through both adult and paediatric emergency departments (March 2025)
• Implementation project: Prehospital bloodgas analysis in Cape Town Metro (November 2025)
• Guideline revision: Fundamentals of Emergency Care handbook (November 2025-present)

• Prof S Lahri, Emergency Physician, Head of Division of Emergency Medicine, Stellenbosch University, +27 82 664 2421, slahri@sun.ac.za
• Assoc Prof C Hendrikse, Emergency Physician, Head of Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Cape Town, +27 79 084 1254, clint.hendrikse@uct.ac.za
• Dr C van Koningsbruggen, Emergency Physician, Mitchells Plain Hospital, +27 84 464 5353, candice.vankoningsbruggen@westerncape.gov.za